Time to Think
by BrOnZe-N-SilVeR
Summary: The team is chasing a murderer, but what happens when Kate and Tony chase him onto the roof in the midst of a storm? Read and Review, please! : Just take a look! NEW CHAPTER UP :D
1. The Chase

_Hey everyone! This is just stemming from an idea that is still forming in my head. I will be posting chapters regularly! Let me know what you think of the storyline so far... believability? Writing style? Character correctness? Plot line?_

**_Disclaimer: I own none of these awesome, awesome, AWESOME characters!_**

_Anyways, I really hope you all enjoy this! Please read and review! :)_

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Three pairs of boot-clad feet pounded up the winding concrete staircase, but Special Agent Caitlin Todd didn't have time to think about that. Gibbs, her gruff and ever-demanding boss, was ten flights of dust-slick stairs below, handcuffing one black-clad goon and trusting his two most senior agents to apprehend the other; but Kate had no time to think about that. In fact, Kate had no time to think of anything but the 200 pounds of hooded black sweatshirt that was running just six steps ahead of her. Seven steps.

Now six again.

Five.

She was _not_ about to let him get away.

"STOP! FEDERAL AGENTS!" Tony's voice was loud in her ear as he pounded directly behind Kate, keeping pace one stair behind her, gun drawn and mind working furiously. His yells echoed off the dank concrete walls, doing nothing to slow the man in front of them.

Suddenly, light. A door.

"He's on the roof, Tony!" Kate called back to her partner, bursting through the heavy metal door with Tony right on her heels.

It was light stepping right into a hurricane. Biting wind gusted angrily across the rooftop and rain hammered onto their heads in sheets, but they ran without hesitation into the blinding downpour.

"STOP, FEDERAL AGENTS!" That was Kate, this time. She was four steps behind their man, running hard.

"Stop! There's no where you can go!" That was Tony. He slid to a stop midway across the roof and was taking aim, focusing his sights on the slowing target.

"He's right, Hartfield." Kate stopped too, pointing her gun and squinting into the rain as Hartfield skidded to a halt on the slick roof, dangerously close to the edge of the building.

"Got two options, dirt bag. Give up now or we shoot you." Tony moved slowly closer so that he stood next to Kate.

"I don't like those options."

"You gave up your right to good choices when you killed those Marines." Tony snarled, shaking his head as he tried in vain to dislodge some of the rain that was now streaming from his hair.

A hesitation. Then, "Fine." The man, black hoodie now thoroughly soaked through, knelt on the ground, his back to the edge of the roof; his meaty, knife-scarred hands laced behind his head. He was the blurry picture of submission.

If only they could have seen his eyes through the rain.

"I've got him, Tony." Kate lowered her gun and pulled out her handcuffs, her breath coming hard and fast. Ten flights of stairs was quite the feat, even for a former Secret Service agent. Through the rain, she could see Tony's chest heaving identically. Tony nodded, keeping his gun trained on Hartfield's forehead.

Kate walked gingerly around behind the man, trying to slip as she snapped the harsh metal rings around his wrist and pulled him into a standing position. It was then that things began to go downhill.

Hartfield looked directly at Tony, a dangerous smile curling his lips as he stood. "You were wrong, by the way, earlier. You said there was nowhere to go? You should know by now that there is _always_ somewhere to go." And with that, Hartfield heaved himself backwards into the much slighter Caitlin Todd, and Tony DiNozzo attempted to yell a warning that came too late, and Kate tried in vain to dodge sideways, her feet slipping on the rain-slick concrete as Hartfield's weight caught her shoulder and spun the two of them over the edge of the roof.


	2. Going to Ducky's

Hey everyone!

I am SO SORRY about the long time before this update! Though it's a terrible, far over-used excuse . . . I was out of town. Really, I just got in yesterday. But still. I'm so sorry and you have every right to be furious!

. . . :(

Anyway, I really hope that you enjoy this update, and I will post the next bit asap!

Please Read and Review, let me know your thoughts or ideas :) I'd love to hear from you!

_Disclaimer: Though I love them dearly, I own none of these phenomenal characters. _

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"KATE!" Tony dropped his gun, running to the edge of the building. Time had slowed down, and he was moving through molasses. It was ages, eons before he reached the slick stone edge and fell to his knees, peering over. What he saw, then, took a short forever to process.

There, ten feet below, handing for dear life (and I do mean _life_) onto a rusty fire escape was his partner, her mocha hair plastered to her shoulders and a spectacular bruise blooming up her entire right side where she had hit the edge of the building. She would look at that bruise later, in the mirror, and thank God for it. Hitting the edge was the only thing that slowed her down enough to catch hold of the fire escape.

"Hey Tony, you just gonna stand there or are you going to pull me up?" Had the situation not been so dire, Tony would have laughed. The remark was classic Kate, if you ignored the slight tremor in her voice and the unmasked look of sheer terror in her eyes.

Tony nodded, eyeing his partner nervously. "Any way you can climb onto the platform, Kate?" As Tony watched, Kate clamored slowly and painfully up onto the platform part of the fire-escape, leveraging herself on her elbows, making tensely slow progress as she fought the wind that threatened to plaster her to the rough brick wall. Tony mentally thanked Gibbs for his strict workout regime that had enabled Kate to pull herself up. "Just hang on a minute more, Katie."

"No duh, DiNozzo." Again, classic Kate. The special agent was determinedly looking up, away from the stomach churning drop beneath her, but she was pale, her knuckles white as she clung to the metal structure. Multiple scratches along her face and neck bled, the thick red liquid mixing with the rain that continued to stream down her body. If they both got out of this without pneumonia, it would be a miracle.

Behind Tony, the metal door to the staircase slammed as a third set of shoes, loafers, this time, joined them at a run.

"DiNozzo! Grab her left arm!" Gibbs growled, dropping to his knees and leaning over the edge. "And don't you fall over, either." And then Gibbs was there, pulling. And then Tony was heaving and Kate was fighting for footholds against the wet brick building. And then she was over the edge and the three of them were collapsing back onto the rooftop and Kate was huddled against her friends as the rain continued to pour.

Ten minutes later, Tony and Kate were swaddled in blankets sitting in the back of the Sudan as Gibbs practically flew them back to headquarters, barely avoiding half a dozen wrecks in the process.

"Autopsy. Now. Both of you." Gibbs growled as soon as the car was parked, eyeing his dripping and bloodied agents with worry.

"Gibbs, I'm fine!"  
"Really Gibbs, it's not necessary!" Kate and Tony protested simultaneously.

Gibbs did not respond, worry clear on his face. Kate's voice had lost much of its volume and had taken on a certain unhealthy rasp. Tony was shivering despite the warmth of the car.

"Until you both remember to bring rain jackets to our crime scenes, you have no argument." He muttered sarcastically, ushering them forward. These were his agents. His. He was responsible. Pure luck and God's grace had kept Kate alive, and Tony had just recovered from the Plague. He hadn't been able to protect them then, but no way in the world he was letting them off without a visit to Ducky. Quite frankly, they were lucky he wasn't sending them straight to Bethesda.

Gibb's searching eyes found Kate, leaning up against the wall of the elevator, water dripping from her dark hair. Her face was tense, and she was clearly replaying the day's events, her near exit from their world. They then drifted to Tony, his Senior Field, standing with a soaked sort of defiance, determinedly not touching the elevator sides. But Gibbs saw the tell-tale shivering that cascaded through DiNozzo's body as the water leaked off of him. And, knowing his agent, the more defiant he was of his mortality, the worse he felt.

Yes. Maybe they would both be fine. Hopefully, they would both be fine. But Kate and Tony were his.

And they were most certainly going to Ducky's.


End file.
